Frequency dividers are among the basic circuits of digital technology. Frequency dividers are digital circuits, and the input frequencies are integer multiples of the output frequencies. Such circuits are used for example in radiofrequency technology, where there exists continual demand for the development of circuits with ever higher clock rates or frequencies. In order to realize frequency dividers, usually a plurality of gates are connected in series in a combinatorial part of the divider, so that, for each state change of the input signal, many gates are switched within one clock period.
The maximum possible input frequency of a frequency divider is thus limited by the sum of the signal propagation times of the series-connected gates.
US 2003/0007591 discloses a frequency divider that overcomes the above mentioned disadvantage. This frequency divider comprises among other components a state register, a decoder, a loading device and a parallel to serial converter. Some of these components are clocked with a high frequency clock, whereas other components are clocked with a low frequency clock. Due to the use of many components and of two frequency clocks, the frequency divider disclosed in US 2003/0007591 remains quite complicated to manufacture.